


Who Tells Your Story?

by Sakusanei



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Ambiguous Relationships, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Established Relationship, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 03:43:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20039371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sakusanei/pseuds/Sakusanei
Summary: To win a war is to sacrifice all you know. Kyoutani doesn’t know if he’s willing to risk it.





	Who Tells Your Story?

The realisation came to Kyoutani on a late autumn evening, when the beige leaves were fluttering down from trees like angels wings, flapping to escape a war-torn nation.

It came to him quietly, softly sinking into him. They said the sound of a heart breaking was a loud, banging event, but the only thing Kyoutani could hear was a gentle sobbing beneath him from a boy far, far more broken than he would- _could_ ever understand.

_(He realised that, no matter what tactic or method you use, innocents are always the ones to pay the price in war.)_

For a long time, neither said any words (there was no use for frivolous reassurances) and Kyoutani simply listened as the heaving of the boy beneath him intensified into shivering.

“Next time, we’re going to pay them back.” Finally, Yahaba spoke.

The proclamation was lost in a sea of tears, but the meaning was transparent to Kyoutani: _we will get revenge_.

“I’m going to end them all. I swear, I will.” The oath weighed heavily upon Kyoutani’s lips like poison, a sodden reminder of how he was no longer a child. They had been forced to grow up quickly, to fight in a war they had no wish to partake in. Those who didn’t would end up dead, limbs missing, as they rested in a shallow pit in the only graveyard left.

“Don’t swear on promises you can’t keep.”

Yahaba pressed his face into his sleeve, taking one last glance towards the headstone, before looking up at Kyoutani. Kyoutani couldn’t stomach it, couldn’t fathom how Yahaba looked at him in that way — like he was the entire world, a deity sent from above, like he _meant_ something.

_(Maybe he did mean something, to somebody, but value was fragile; even though people cared about you, you still had no guarantee you would return home to them._

Yahaba rose, shoulders broad like he had never unraveled, never broken into tiny pieces. Fleetingly, Kyoutani remembered how Oikawa had stood in the same posture before they would go on a mission. _Before_-

Before he became another name on the memorial.

“The meeting is going to start soon.”

Kyoutani nodded, unable to bring himself to speak, for he feared that if he spoke, his demons would resurface.

Yahaba took Kyoutani’s hand, intertwining their fingers together like two pieces of a puzzle that were meant to be. (Oikawa and Iwaizumi were meant to be, too, but they never made it.)

“Let’s go.”

They wandered out of the cemetery together.

Kyoutani sneaked a glance over his shoulder (he wished he hadn’t) at the tall concrete slabs of names, at the freshly dug graves. No matter how far he walked away from it, he could still see the names.

_Oikawa Tooru, Kindaichi Yuutarou, Watari Shinji._

* * *

There was nothing that could have prepared Kyoutani for this.

They had already sacrificed so much — their homes, their lives, their childhoods. Why did they have to give up even more?

“They’re asking for fifteen of us. Fifteen of us to go there, tomorrow, and meet with them over a peace treaty.” Sawamura was stood on the empty boxes with Sugawara shifting in the shadows behind him.

Translating was easy.

_To meet and die for the ruthless leaders to decide if our sacrifices were enough._

“We won’t ask for anyone to go, but know that this is not in vain. Nobody else will end up on our plaques.”

_Wasn’t that what he had said when Oikawa had gone to discuss the same ‘treaty’ months ago?)_

Just like that, the meeting was over.

* * *

The Aoba Jousai sleeping quarters were quiet. So, so quiet. Before, they were somewhat loud (not on the same level as Karasuno), but it was a homely place, full of Oikawa’s pre-mission speeches, Watari’s muffled cackles and Kindaichi’s reassuring talks.

At the time, there had been talk of Oikawa becoming Sawamura’s second-in-command, taking over Sugawara’s position and relegating him to a back-row seat. Of course, that had never happened. No, Suga had kept his position and Oikawa had found a new home in the graveyard.

Now, it was quiet.

“Everyone knows this is shit, right?” Kunimi said when nobody else had bothered to comment. (Kindaichi would have reprimanded him for swearing.)

Matsukawa and Hanamaki silently nodded, but Iwaizumi shrugged. Beside Kyoutani, Yahaba shuffled, pulling the taller teen into a loose embrace.

“Yes.” Kyoutani snapped his head up to balk at Iwaizumi. “But I’m going.” Iwaizumi seldom spoke since Oikawa’s untimely disappearance, but this was the most he had said.

“You’re not.” Hanamaki wriggled up out of his laying position to glare at Iwaizumi.

“If there’s a chance of finding Tooru, I have to go.”

Matsukawa broke in. “Hajime, he’s gone.”

“We don’t know anything. He could still be out there for all we know.”

“I’m going too.”

For the second time that night, Kyoutani turned to stare at the source of the voice. Instead of it coming from the other side of the room, it came from beside him.

Yahaba.

Yahaba, who had supposedly been a carefree child before all of this started. Yahaba, who was rumoured to become the next leader after Sawamura and Sugawara fall. Yahaba, who had held Kyoutani at knifepoint once to force him to bother trying in this winnerless war, even though he know it was futile. Yahaba, who had held his hand when Kyoutani ended up injured.

The rest of the conversation drowned out beneath the ringing of Kyoutani’s own ears.

* * *

The next morning, Yahaba marched out of the base, with thirteen other volunteers and a deity at his side.


End file.
